Rwanda's national network of village-level health volunteers, launched in 1995 in the immediate aftermath of the genocide against the Tutsi, at a time when the country's health infrastructure had been destroyed and its economy devastated. The program began with roughly 12,000 community health workers endorsed by the Ministry of Health and has grown into a structure of three workers per village of about 50 to 150 households, an Animatrice de Sante Maternelle focused on maternal health alongside a male-female pair known as a binome, who together identify and treat common childhood illnesses such as malaria, diarrhea and malnutrition, and who promote healthy behavior and link households to the formal health system, contributing to Rwanda's substantial gains in maternal and child health over the following decades.
Facts
Program StatusActive, currently supported by a national workforce of community health workers organized in binome pairs plus a maternal health worker per village 1 Sponsoring BodyRwanda Ministry of Health 1 Target PopulationAll community members at village level, with particular focus on pregnant women and children 1 Health GoalExtend basic maternal and child health services to village level and help meet Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child health 1 Geographic ScopeNational, with three community health workers assigned per village of about 50 to 150 households 1 Measured ResultsThe program grew from 12,000 community health workers at the 1995 founding to a peak of 60,000, later settling near 45,000 after the CHW In Charge of Social Affairs position was eliminated 1 Program status (class) Classification
Program Kind Connections
Associated With
Source CHW Central: Rwanda Community Health Worker Program
Delivers Practice
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Sources
1. CHW Central: Rwanda Community Health Worker Program
CHW CentralHistory section
Rwanda’s renowned national Community Health Worker program was launched in 1995, shortly after the culmination of the Tutsi genocide.
- Overview section
Impact section
Rwanda could not have achieved the MDGs for maternal and child health three years early without the support of the CHWs.
Implementation section
The program began in 1995 with a network of 12,000 CHWs endorsed by the MOH.
Page text
Today, Rwanda maintains a workforce of nearly 45,000 workers who provide services such as maternal check-ins and age-appropriate health assessments.
Program classification, entity description sentence
The program began with roughly 12,000 community health workers endorsed by the Ministry of Health and has grown into a structure of three workers per village of about 50 to 150 households, an Animatrice de Sante Maternelle focused on maternal health alongside a male-female pair known as a binome, who together identify and treat common childhood illnesses such as malaria, diarrhea and malnutrition, and who promote healthy behavior and link households to the formal health system, contributing to Rwanda's substantial gains in maternal and child health over the following decades.
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